


Untimely

by starrychild88



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Drug use/reference, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, How tf do i tag, Hunk (Voltron) is so Pure, Kinda, M/M, Slow Burn, adam is the hubby, allura and romelle are cute gfs, allura runs the flower shop next door, coran would be the best professor change my mind, he's the best seriously, hunk and pidge work at a bakery, keith doesnt sleep, keith is bad at feelings, keiths a tattoo artist, lance is a mess, lance works at a grocery store, matt smokes yo, shiro's keith's older bro, the smiths are cool i guess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-06-23 04:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15597954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrychild88/pseuds/starrychild88
Summary: Lance has had it rough, to put it lightly. His current job seems more trouble than its worth, his cat hates him for the new dietary plan the vet put her on, and his relationships never last long. Oh, and he doesn't get any sleep because his neighbor doesn't know what common courtesy is, which Lance would definitely cuss him out for except..he’s kind of hot...?Wait, what?





	1. Let Me Get What I Want This Time

**Author's Note:**

> LOL WRITING THIS TO DISTRACT ME FROM THE ANXIETY THAT WILL BE SEASON 7  
> Comments and kudos appreciated <3

“Buddy, when I said you could stop by the shop anytime you wanted… I didn’t mean that you could barge in wailing and having a midlife crisis right before closing.”

“Shush Hunk, can’t you see I’m wallowing right now?”

“Yeah Hunk,” Pidge laughs, “can’t you see he’s busy?”

“You too, Pidge.”

Lance stares at his phone and groans. Her text really could’ve just said “sorry, I want to break up” but instead she decided to include three tragic backstories dating back to Paleolithic times and a dead hamster. Hell, if he copied and pasted it into his essay that’s due tomorrow, it probably would exceed the required word count. Seven pages of complete and utter bullshit.

He can’t blame her, though. Rolo’s pretty cute too- in a weird stoner way, he guesses.

“I just don’t know if I did anything wrong? Did my breath stink last night on our date? Was I eating my burger wrong? Oh my god do you think she noticed the ketchup stain when I asked for the check-” Lance starts to ramble until Hunk cuts him off.

“Hey, I’m sure you didn’t do anything bad, man. S’Just sometimes things don’t work out, you know?” He says, patting his friend on the back. Pidge nods beside him.

“Yeah, shit happens.” She shrugs.

“Well this _shit_ just broke my heart,” Lance pouts and drops his head on the counter.

“Oh my god,” Hunk grabs the keys and walks away from the counter, Pidge trailing behind him. He picks Lance up over his shoulder and steps out of the bakery, locking the doors behind him. “You’re so dramatic,” he says. Pidge snickers and nods, giggling until she hits her toe on one of the potted plants from the flower shop next door.

“Dammit! I told Allura to tell Romelle to move those things out of the way!” Pidge curses. “ _Fuck_ these green bastards!”

“Hey, without plants we wouldn’t be able to breathe ya know?”

“Yeah yeah, these stupid things are keeping me alive, of course I know that. One day I’m just going to lay down in a garden and wait for the shit to decompose and hope I go down with them.” She grunts.

“What a morbid little child,” Hunk mutters, adjusting his grip on Lance.

“Yeah, really.” Lance agrees.

* * *

 

 Lance continues to toss and turn, today’s events swimming around in his head and anxiety ready to dive in. Honestly, his breakup with Nyma wasn’t a big deal. Like, yeah he’s sad that things didn’t work out but other fish in the sea and crap, right? But what did Pidge and Hunk think? They knew he was joking, right? And what about Nyma? Did she tell Rolo or someone else bad things about him?

No, he thinks. If Nyma was that kind of person he wouldn’t have asked her out in the first place. So why is he feeling this way? Why does he have a pit in his stomach? Is his subconscious more disappointed than he was? Did he feel like if he changed some things then maybe she wouldn’t have broken up with him? Was he afraid he wasn’t going to fall in love and _stay_ in love?

 

_Christ_ , he’s so not going there tonight.

 

“Alright! Time for Lancey Lance to go to bed!” He says to himself, turning on his side with the sheets over his head. He is going to go to sleep and he’s going to wake up feeling refreshed and prepared for tomorrow and that’s that.

…

It’s 3 o’clock in the morning.

Lance still hasn’t fallen asleep.

To be fair, it’s because of his stupid neighbor and his habit of blasting music at the most inappropriate of times.

_You would think_ that if someone was playing The Smiths, they’d play it softly while they were like, reading and getting ready for bed. Nope, not this fucker. Instead, he seems to think that playing Super Smash Bros while jamming out to “Asleep” is the best way to spend his late Tuesday nights. God, does he even concern himself with the neighbors? Have any of them tried to confront him? The apartment hallways love to echo, the rooms even more so. He’s sure someone would’ve said something by now.

Well... if they did it was to no avail, obviously. So now he’s going to have to play the hero and share some words with him. Hooray.

But that’s for later, right now he’s going to shove in his earbuds and listen to The Smiths properly.

* * *

 

 “You’ve got this, no big deal it’ll all be good…” Lance gives himself a pep talk as soon as he finished his morning routine (wash face, brush teeth, feed Blue, pick out clothes, feed Blue again, etc.) and makes his way over to guy’s door. He stands there for what feels like an eternity before finally, albeit softly, knocking on his door. He swished back and forth and began to whistle while he waited for someone to open the door.

No one did.

“Oh god,” Lance groans and knocks harder, using both knuckles.

Finally, he hears footsteps and what sounds like a guy mumbling grumpily. Good, he thinks. Imagine how all of us feel at night, he rolls his eyes. The murmurs grow louder until he hears the turn of the doorknob.

 

Standing in front of Lance is the hottest guy he’s ever seen.

 

“ _Fuck,_ ” Lance grunts.

The man yawns before leaning against the door. “Can I help you?” He asks, blunt but not necessarily impolite.

“Uh..yes. Yep. Yeah. Sure. Um, you definitely can.”

 

Maybe he’ll join in on the whole “decomposing” thing with Pidge.


	2. You're so Very Good-Looking, Why Do You Sleep Alone Tonight?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hate snooty middle-aged people.

 

Lance doesn’t _really_ have a certain taste in men or women, he just kind of flirts with whoever he thinks isn’t going to flat-out reject him- to which, he’s not really good at either. But this guy? He’s hitting a lot of things Lance is attracted to.

What Lance Likes In Men (Usually):

_\- Piercings? Check._

He’s got a lip piercing, and multiple studs and hoops around his right ear. He can’t see his left ear but he notices the eyebrow piercings. Lance wonders if he’s got any other piercings that he can’t see.

_-Tattoos? Check._

Hell, they’re everywhere except for his face. Most of them are black, but he can see splashes of red, blue, and violet as he continues to gaze.

_-Beautiful eyes? Check._

God, he can’t even tell what color they are. Whatever, they’re gorgeous.

_-Nice hair? Oh…_

Is that a fucking mullet?

_-Nice personality? Wait a minute._

 

“Can I help you?” The man asks again after a pause.

 

Thankfully, that seems to do the trick.

 

“Uh, yeah!” Lance shouts, hoping he doesn’t notice his voice cracking. “What the hell is up with the noise, man? People are trying to sleep.” He complains.

 

The man cocks an eyebrow, confused. “I was asleep when you knocked on the door. I haven’t made any noise this morning.” He says.

 

“Oh my god,” Lance drags out, “last night! It was you who was blasting The Smiths and playing...what, _Super Smash Bros_ and _Fallout_? Not only are those completely different games and you shouldn’t play both in one day because it’s weird playing games with no correlation, who jams out to The Smiths? They’re the band to listen to when trying to fall asleep, not knocking out Jigglypuff or whatever.” Lance rants for a good minute, leaving the neighbor to cross his arms and glare.

 

“Look that’s just how I like to spend my nights,” He shrugs. “Sorry if my weird habits bother you so much.” He grunts, apology not sincere. If anything, he kind of looked offended.

 

“Man, I don’t really care about the actual stuff you’re doing, it’s the noise volume. My bedroom shares the same wall of what I’m guessing is your living room and it’s keeping me up. I’ve got to work and do shit for school, can’t do that happily-or, well, normally because those two things are never really ‘happy,’- when I can’t sleep.” Lance finally says, exasperated. The boy’s glare softens, and he finally sighs and shifts his weight again.

 

“Yeah, yeah I get it. Alright, I’ll keep the noise down, thanks for coming here yourself instead of getting the landlord. That asshole knocking on your door is not a great thing to wake up to.” He rolls his eyes.

 

Now that, Lance can understand. Sendak is an actual jerk.

 

“Oh trust me, I know. A couple of months ago he got mad at me for moving around furniture in the middle of the day, said it was too bothersome for him. I mean, when else was I going to do it?” Lance says, laughing. “Don’t even get me started with Hunk and Pidge, they have gotten multiple calls from him.”

 

“Pidge? As in ‘Pidge Holt’? The one upstairs?”

 

“Oh, yeah. You know her?” If he did, why didn’t Pidge shut him up? She wouldn’t have tolerated it for a second.

 

“She’s cool, I stop by the bakery she works at on my lunch break. My brother is friends with her brother,” the man nods.

 

“Matt? Yeah, he’s funny. So have you met Hunk as well?” Lance asks.

 

“The big guy who always wears yellow? Don’t know him that well, but he’s always been nice to me.” The guy shrugs.

 

“He a literal walking carebear,” Lance laughs and Keith agrees, his lips tilt upwards, but Lance wouldn’t exactly call that a smile. The conversation ends at that, and Lance coughs nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

 

“Uh, yeah, well thanks...um”

 

“Keith,” He says.

 

“Lance. For um, turning the volume down. I’ve got to go to work now so...bye?” God, Lance doesn’t think he’s sounded that awkward since that time he tried asking Allura out in high school.

 

Keith nods and turns back into his room, closing the door behind him. Not even a second later, Lance’s alarm rings in his back pocket.

 

“Christ,” Lance groans. He’s got a bad feeling about work today.

 

-

“That’ll be $89.50, ma’am.”

 

“Oh! I have coupons.”

 

Aaand... Lance was right.

 

“I’m sorry ma’am,” he says, praying his voice is as gentle as can be, “these coupons expired on the 13th of this month.”

 

“What?! That’s impossible! You all gave them to me last week!” She snaps.

 

Probably because they were still _good_ last week.

 

“They’re only two days past the date, can’t you use them anyway?” She pleads.

 

 _Sure, if I want to lose my job,_ he thinks to himself. Why does he always have to deal with these stuck-up suburban moms? Don’t they know how fragile he is?

 

“I’m sorry but I can’t. Cash or credit?” He asks, trying to move on.

 

“You shouldn’t be giving coupons out that literally expire the week afterward.” She argues.

 

Oh god, he knows what’s coming next.

 

“I’d like to speak with the manager.”

 

_Shit._

 

“Of course, ma’am,” he grits out.

 

It didn’t take long for Ezor to come out.

 

“Hi! How can we help you today?” She asks, sweet voice hiding the fact that she’s just as pissed off and dead inside as Lance is.

 

“Yes,” The woman says snootily, “I received these coupons last week, and they expired two days ago. To make up for the fact that you guys were selling them so late, I’d like for these to be used with my purchases.”

 

It’s dead silent, save for the beeping at the self checkout and the rustling of  grocery bags.

 

Lance can feel the dark aura around his manager.

 

“I’m afraid that our policy doesn’t allow us to use expired coupons ma’am. Do you have a rewards card?”

 

_That became another problem all on its own._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos appreciated! <3
> 
> Find me on Tumblr  
> Voltron Tumblr: http://starrychild88.tumblr.com/  
> Art Tumblr: http://cosmicstormss.tumblr.com/


	3. He Knows So Much About These Things

“Wow, that bad?” Hunk asks as he places the muffins in the oven.

 

“God, I don’t even know who Ezor was more mad at, the woman for being uncooperative or me because I wasn’t able to handle it on my own.” Lance sighs.

 

“You shouldn’t be at fault, once they call for the manager it’s all up to them,” Hunk takes off his oven mitts and pats Lance on the shoulder. “I’m sorry yesterday was rough, were you at least able to sleep? I know the neighbor’s been keeping you up.”

 

“Oh!” Lance shouts, “I talked to him yesterday morning, he was cool about it, though kind of touchy? I don’t know but I couldn’t hear anything last night so that’s all that matters,” Lance shrugs.

 

“So are you guys like friends or something now?” Hunk asks and Lance laughs.

 

“Nah, it was pretty clear that he wasn’t a people person. He said he did know you and Pidge, though.” Lance tells him. “His name is Keith?”

 

Hunk’s eyes widen in recognition, “long hair?  Tattoos everywhere? Piercings? A lot of black?”

 

Lance nods.

 

“Yeah he’s stopped by here to pick up a bag of triple chocolate cookies on his lunch break before, he works at the tattoo parlor across the street. He’s Shiro’s brother.”

 

“Whoa, what? The dude is like, nothing like Shiro,” Lance shakes his head in disbelief. Shiro was kind, a people person, helpful, considerate, basically a saint. Keith didn’t seem to really match up to any of those traits.

 

Hunk shrugs, icing the cupcakes. “You should ask Pidge when she gets here about him. She knows a lot more than I do and is supposed to bring the cookies over around one or so, he’s too busy to actually leave the shop.”

 

Too busy to walk across the street? _Yeah, okay_ , Lance thinks. Too lazy is what it really is.

 

It’s about five minutes later when Hunk gets a call from Pidge, Lance picks it up for him since he’s got icing pretty much everywhere on his hands.

 

“Hey Pidge, what’s up?” He greets.

 

“Oh thank god, I never thought I’d have to ask for help from you in my entire life but… shit happens, I guess.” Pidge sighs.

 

Lance flares up, “What’s that supposed to mean?  Why I outta take those peanut butter cookies Hunk made and shove them right up-“

 

“Do anything to my cookies and I’ll skin you. Look, Matt got _suuuper_ high today and decided to catch the microwave on fire. How you can fuck up pizza rolls that badly beats me. I might have to take him to the doc since he decided to shove one right in his mouth after we put the fire out. Lance, I need you to take the cookies over to the tattoo parlor shop since I’ll be late. It’s for a guy named Keith.” She says.

 

“Yeah, yeah, I met him. Wait, why me?!” Lance screeches.

 

“Because Hunk can’t do it and Shay is off today. Please?” Pidge says and immediately groans after Matt screams something Lance can’t really make out. “I gotta go.” She quickly hangs up.

 

Lance whines and turns to Hunk, who has a hand over his mouth. “I want a free batch of snickerdoodles for this,” Lance grunts and grabs the bag that Hunk just set out.

 

“All the batches I give you are free,” Hunk points out but Lance is already halfway out the door.

———

“Matt told me he couldn’t come in because of a cold,” Shiro frowns.

 

Oops. Sorry, Matt.

 

“Maybe he did have one? The Holts always have a case of bad luck,” Lance tries to back Matt up, shrugging. Shiro seems to take it and nods.

 

“Trust me, I know. Both Matt and Katie are responsible for my gray hairs,” Shiro laughs.

“So you’re running cookie duty for her? Keith’s in the back. He’s the one with-“

 

“I know him,” Lance interrupts, “he’s my neighbor.”

 

Shiro raises an eyebrow, “Oh, I didn’t know that. Well then, go ahead.” He points to the back.

 

“Thanks.”

 

Lance walks around the counter, going into the very back of the shop. He slows down once he starts to hear two people talking.

 

“Thank you so much, Keith. It’s gorgeous!”

 

Lance hears the rolling of a chair. “No problem, try not to go into the water that much. If you have to, use the cream I suggested.”  Keith draws the curtain back, startling both Lance and himself. “Oh,” the tattooist said.

 

Gone was the bedhead from yesterday morning, in its place was a high ponytail secured with a red scrunchie. Keith bites his lip which, in turn, makes Lance notice that his lip piercing was also red today.

 

 _Mission Abort, Mission Abort_.

 

“Umm…” Lance starts. Great.

 

Suddenly, a girl with large hoop earrings and a short bob is walking past him, Lance spots the fresh tattoo. It’s a single blue crystal surrounded by different kinds of flowers. The amount of detail and range of shading is what really catches Lance’s eyes, though.

 

“Wow, good job, man.” He says.

 

Keith has the nerve to _blush_ , which isn’t fair at all in Lance’s book, and rubs the back of his neck. “Thanks,” he mumbles. The girl waves to him before heading to the counter. “See you later, Shay,” he waves back.

 

“Are those…?” Keith looks at the bag in Lance’s hands and trails off.

 

“Oh...oh! Yeah, these are yours. Pidge is in some..” Lance tries to figure out how to put her situation in words.

 

“Deep Holt shit?” Keith finishes.

 

“Yep! So, she asked me to deliver them instead.” Lance grins and the corner of Keith’s lips tilt upwards. Still not exactly a smile, but it will do.

 

“But I don’t understand why you don’t just stop by and grab it? It’s right across the street man, like a 30 sec walk max.” Immediately, the not-quite smile turns into quite a frown.

 

“I’m just too busy to do it,” he says, picking a loose seam from his shirt.

 

Lance scoffs, “Really?”

 

“Look,” Keith grits out. “I’m always so focused on tattooing that I sometimes forget other things I need to do. Pidge says she understands because she does the same thing whenever computers are involved so she offered to bring over food when she can.” He says.

 

“Oh,” Lance says. He thinks he gets where Keith is coming from.

 

“Is it just when you’re doing tats?” He asks.

 

“No,” Keith takes it upon himself and grabs the bag out of Lance’s hands, looking at the cookies inside. “It’s with anything I’m interested in.”

 

“My brother was the same way,” Lance tells him, “he loved working with cars, you try to tell him to do anything outside of what he was working on, ha, you might as well be asking a brick wall.” He smiles. “That’s how he explained it to us, anyway.”

 

Keith chuckles- which is just music to Lance’s ears, before pausing. “ADHD?” He finally questions.

 

Lance shakes his head. “ADD, he wasn’t really hyperactive or anything.” He explains. “You?”

 

“ADHD, I hated classrooms growing up.” Keith says. “Sitting still was an actual nightmare for me.”

 

“Yeah...sorry for giving you a hard time.” Lance apologizes.

 

“It’s alright. Thanks for...these.” Keith shakes the cookie in his hand before finally taking a bite.

 

“No problem, I’ve got to go but uh…” Lance looks back to Shiro at the front counter before turning towards Keith. “I’m going to need a favor,” he whispers.

 

Keith arches an eyebrow but says nothing.

 

“I may or may not have accidentally ratted Matt out. Can you tell Shiro you like, checked up on him this morning and that he looked really sick? He’s probably already in trouble for what happened forty five minutes ago so I don’t want his boss after him for lying, either.” Lance says.

 

“Alright I will,” Keith agrees, “but only if I get the full story of what happened.”

 

“I’ll have Pidge text it to you,” Lance grins, heading towards the door. “You’re the best, mullet!”

 

As Lance closes the door he can hear the quiet question of “mullet?” and smiles.

 


	4. I Never Did Like Your Face

The car keys jingle as Lance steps out of the car, grabbing Blue’s crate in the process. He hears the cat whine in protest at the sudden movement and laughs. 

 

“I don’t know why you’re complaining, the real fun hasn’t started yet,”  He says, eyeing the new bag of cat food in the backseat. Yeah, he’s going to love trying to force her to eat the new food. 

 

As he walks up the stairs, he looks to Keith’s door. He hadn’t seen him since a couple of days ago at the shop. He wonders if Pidge texted him the story about Matt. He wonders what he’s doing, if he’s even home.

 

Wait, why would he care about that?

 

He opens his apartment door to see a lump sprawled out on the couch, jolting from what looked like a dead sleep.

 

Yeah, believe it or not, Lance does have a roommate. I mean, no one else but him would know since he’s never actually around but as long as he helping with the rent it’s not that big of a deal.

 

“Whoa-who-what’s going- oh, hey Lance.”

 

“Hello to you too, Rolo,” Lance says, opening the crate to let Blue out before heading to the couch. “Surprised to see you’re actually here,” he says.

 

“What do you mean?” He asks.

 

“You’re like, never here man. For the past week, you’ve been staying at Nyma’s house.” He laughs, albeit with a small frown. While he may not be hung up over Nyma anymore, the fact that his lowlife roommate actually scored with her doesn’t feel so good.

 

“Oh, right…” Rolo chuckles.  “I have something to tell you, actually.

 

“Wow, that doesn’t sound terrifying,” Lance mumbles.

 

Either Rolo can’t hear him or is deciding to ignore Lance because he continues without a beat. “I’m moving out.”

 

“You’re fucking  _ what _ ?!”

 

Moving? Out? No, no, nope, nada, not happening. This can’t be happening. 

 

“When? Where? Why?” Lance jumbles out, sweat visible on his forehead. He can’t afford this apartment on his own and as much as he loved his family, he liked the freedom of being on his own- and away from his sibling’s teasing.

 

“At the end of the month so I’ll still pay the upcoming rent. I’m uh, going to stay with Nyma.” Rolo rubs the back of his neck.

 

“What? But you guys have only been together for less than a week! Do you really think that’s such a good idea?” Lance shouts then pauses. Unless… wait a minute.

 

Rolo is dead quiet.

 

“You didn’t,” Lance scoffs. 

 

Absolute radio silence from the local stoner. 

 

“ _ She _ didn’t,” Lance quips. 

 

Again, nothing.

 

“This is a joke,” he says.

 

Finally, a shake of the head from the man.

 

“OH MY GOD!” Lance yells, gripping the tips of his short hair and pulling. “She cheated on me?? With YOU?” 

 

“W-What?! What’s wrong with me!” Rolo shouts, offended. 

 

“What’s wrong with you?” Lance sasses, “you fucked your roommate’s girlfriend, dude!”

 

“I did not! I mean… well, she did give me a-“ 

 

“NOPE! DO NOT!” Lance puts a hand up and scrunches his nose. Christ. 

 

“There’s gotta be some, like... roommate code violation for this shit,” He mumbles. 

 

“If it makes you feel any better, we weren’t doing this to hurt you.” Rolo tries. God, he makes it sound like a question.

 

“Ah yes, that makes me feel SO much better, Rolo. Thank you.” Lance snaps and Rolo shrugs. 

 

“It was nothing you did man, honest. Let me know if there is anything I can do to make it up to you.” He says.

 

Lance sighs, ready to go upstairs and into his room when an idea hits him. He turns back around and narrows his eyebrows. “What do you have on you?” He asks.

 

“W-What?” The man asks, eyes wide.

 

“Weed, how much weed do you have on you?” Lance tries again.

 

“I-uh… well, I’ve got 3 nugs but-“

 

“Hand them over,” he cuts him off.

 

“You’re robbing me?!” Rolo shrieks

 

“Nope, just making this even. You take the love of my life and I take yours,” Lance shrugs, obviously over-exaggerating. 

 

Rolo is still for a minute, before whining and reaching into his pockets, “fuck you, Lance.” He groans.

 

“You brought this on yourself, man” Lance grins and takes the pot before heading upstairs.

 

Minutes later he receives a text from Pidge.

 

Pidgeon :  **I think I heard ur roommate screech did a drug deal go wrong or somethin?**

 

Lance **:** _ Nah, I’ll tell you later. Also, totally off-subject but does Matt need any seed? _

Lance:  _ *weed _

 

Pidgeon: **HA. Wait shit Lance what did u do?**

**________________________________**

 

“Thanks for the trees, man.” Matt grins before heading upstairs.

 

“Please text me if you want food instead of fucking around like last time!” Pidge shouts. 

 

“Yeah, yeah!” He waves her off. 

 

“I can’t believe you did that to Rolo,” Hunk belly laughs. 

 

“I can’t believe she cheated on me with  _ him, _ ” Lance pouts. 

 

“I can, I knew there was something up with her. No one can have that kind of perfect hair without hiding shit.” Pidge says and grunts when Hunk gently elbows her.

 

“What? It’s true! Last Sunday, I saw her walking in the park and I remember the heat was so bad it could rival the devil’s ass but her hair wasn’t frizzy! At all! That’s not normal Hunk, you know that.” She scrunches her nose. 

 

“You’re one to talk, Katie,” He ditches the nickname, “your hair defies all the laws of gravity.” He says.

 

“Well yeah, but everyone knows I’m fucked up,” she rolls her eyes. 

 

“Anyway, maybe it’s for the best. I’m sorry about the whole ‘moving out’ thing, though. You can stay with me and Shay if you want.” Hunk smiles.

 

“I couldn’t do that, Hunk.” Lance whines, “you guys are a couple, I don’t want to intrude in all of that.” He says.

 

“Yeah, he would literally 3rd wheel all the dinners, movies, and other shit you guys do.” Pidge chimes in.

 

“Pidge-“

 

“No she’s right,” Lance agrees.

 

“Well,” Hunk sighs, “the offer is still open. Shay adores you, you know we wouldn’t mind.”

 

“Or,” Pidge grins wickedly, “you could stay with Matt and me.”

 

Lance gulps in terror at the thought of living with the Holts. All the disastrous science experiments, living off of peanut butter and pizza rolls, and occasional kitchen fires. He wouldn’t last a week. 

 

Lance turns to Hunk. “Two weeks to a month, I swear.” He grits out. 

 

Hunk surrenders with his hands in the air, “I’m just happy that I’ll be able to feed you and not worry about your roommates trying to kill you,” He looks at Pidge.

 

“We wouldn’t kill him!” She places a hand on her heart, “just some maiming is all!”

 

A door opening interrupts their conversation, Matt walks downstairs with a cloud of smoke behind him. 

 

“Christ, Matt!” Pidge holds her shirt up to her nose. 

 

“Yes, it is I, Christ Matt,” he grins, eyes red and watery. Hunk looks down at the remaining nug in Lance’s hand.

 

“So...what are you going to do with the other one? You don’t really smoke.” Hunk asks.

 

“Do not give it to my brother, please.” Pidge groans as she watches him walk back upstairs with a random bag of chips, hoping he doesn’t trip and accidentally die. 

 

“I don’t know... does Keith smoke?” Lance asks and Pidge hollers.

 

“What?!” Lance splutters and Hunk laughs. 

 

“Why so interested in Keith, hm?” Pidge leans in. 

 

“I-I-I’m not! He’s just my annoying neighbor and I think maybe weed will calm that mullet down.” Lance defends.

 

“Sure,” the short girl scoffs.

 

“Speaking of ‘mullet,’ why didn’t you ever file noise complaints against him? I’m sure you’ve heard his music before.” Lance questions. 

 

Pidge’s laughter comes to an end and instead looks a little uncomfortable. She brings her hands together and rests them on her knees, looking down at the floor.

 

“I don’t know the details and it’s not my business to share...but Keith’s had a rough life. I know his dad’s gone but I don’t know about his mom. Shiro said he got in trouble a lot back in school and always had difficulty with authority figures.” She says.

 

Lance nods but doesn’t hide his confusion. “Yeah but that doesn’t explain the whole ‘blasting depressing music while playing Super Smash Bros’ thing.” He frowns. 

 

Pidge shrugs and Hunk speaks up. “It may be some kind of weird coping mechanism. You know, to keep him distracted and drown all the bad thoughts out?” He theorizes. 

 

Both Pidge and Lance agree.

 

“I would be surprised if it didn’t,” Lance mumbles. Pidge hums in response. 

 

_______________________

 

Lance wonders if he jinxed it today as he feels the wall vibrate beside him. Normally, he’d be punching the wall and grabbing his headphones while cursing up and down to himself in anger. 

 

But this time he isn’t angry.

 

Instead, he’s sad. He feels a little guilty, too.


End file.
